Sunday, December 18, 2011

Happy Birthday BETTY GRABLE (1916 - 1973)

Happy Birthday to the wonderfully and extremely talented Betty, who dominated the 1940's with her lush eye popping technicolor musicals. Films such as Moon Over Miami, Down Argentine Way, Pin-Up Girl, Springtime in the Rockies and The Dolly Sisters. But one of my favorite Betty films is the thriller I Wake Up Screaming. Happy Birthday Betty!

WELCOME TO THE BETTY GRABLE PAGE.

Dancer, singer, and actress. Her bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was included in the Life magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World". Grable was known for having the most beautiful legs in Hollywood and studio widely dispersed photos featuring them. Grable's legs were insured by her studio for $1,000,000 with Lloyds of London. In 1943, she married trumpeter and big band leader Harry James. The couple had two daughters, Victoria and Jessica. The couple divorced in 1965. Grable entered into a relationship with a dancer, Bob Remick several years her junior. Though they did not marry, their romance lasted until the end of Grable's life.

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Betty Grable

Betty Grable was born Elizabeth Ruth Grable on December 18, 1916 in St. Louis Missouri to John C. Grable and Lillian Rose Hofmann. The youngest of three children, Grable was pushed into acting by her mother. She landed her first role at the age of 13 as a chorus girl in 1929’s Happy Days.

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Pigskin Parade is a 1936 musical comedy film which tells the story of husband and wife college football coaches who convince a backwoods player to play for their team so they can go to the big Bowl Game. It was written by William M. Conselman, Mark Kelly, Nat Perrin, Arthur Sheekman, Harry Tugend and Jack Yellen, and was directed by David Butler.

A Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school and tries to save it by a big show.

Betty Grable plays young Jane Morrow who applies for the job of a theater usherette, and encounters her matinee idol. After he takes a liking to her, he arranges for her to audition in front of an audience. Jane is a hit, making her idol less favorable. Jane soons finds herself engaged to another man.

College Swing, also known as Swing, Teacher, Swing in the U.K., is a 1938 comedy film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye, and Bob Hope. It features Edward Everett Horton, Ben Blue, Betty Grable, Jackie Coogan and Jerry Colonna.

Betty Grable first feature length movie with top-billing.

Though it came out in September 1941, months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the movie features an American pilot (Tyrone Power) who joins the Royal Air Force in England—not to defend England but to impress a former girlfriend (Betty Grable). As the movie progresses, his motivations gradually change as he begins to realize all that is at stake in the war and what the Allies are fighting for.

Tyrone Power

Betty Gable and Tyrone Power only performed in one film together. Yank in the Raf.

Sweet Rosie O'Grady is a 1943 musical film about an American singer who attempts to better herself by marrying an English duke, but is harassed by a reporter. It stars Betty Grable and Robert Young.

The Farmer Takes a Wife is a 1953 musical comedy film starring Betty Grable and Thelma Ritter. It is a remake of the 1935 film of the same name which starred Janet Gaynor and Henry Fonda.

In 1861, Countess Angelina, ruler of Bergamo in southeastern Europe, marries Mario, a baron she has known since childhood.

Musical comedy film released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1942. A Betty Grable vehicle, with support from John Payne, Carmen Miranda, Cesar Romero, Charlotte Greenwood, and Edward Everett Horton. Also in the cast was Grable's future husband Harry James, and his band. The director was Irving Cummings. Click picture to view movie clip.

Coney Island (1943). Musical. Cast: Betty Grable in one of her biggest hits. A "gay nineties". George Montgomery, Cesar Romero, and Phil Silvers. Director: Walter Lang. Betty Grable also starred in the 1950 remake of Coney Island, named Wabash Avenue. In 1944, the year after the film was released, it was nominated for an Oscar for Alfred Newman in the category of Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Cesar Romero

Romero played "Latin lovers" in films from the 1930s until the 1950s, usually in supporting roles. He starred as The Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941. Romero danced and performed comedy in the 20th Century Fox films he starred in opposite Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable, such as Week-End in Havana and Springtime in the Rockies, in the 1940s.

Coney Island

Three For The Show(1955). Musical/comedy/remake of Too Many Husbands. Director: H.C. Potter. Cast: Betty Grable in her last musical,Jack Lemmon, Gower Champion and Marge Champion.

How to be Very Very Popular (1955). Comedy. Director: Nunally Johnson. Cast; Betty Grable, Sheree North and Robert Cummings. A non-musical remake of 1934's "She Loves Me Not. This was Betty Grable's final film.

A Navy sailor tries to rekindle a romance with the woman he loves while on shore leave in San Francisco. Click picture to view movie trailer.

The Gay Divorcee (1934) Based on the musical play Gay Divorce. Written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein. Screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman, from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners. Director: Mark Sandrich. The movie is a musical/ comedy. This was the second of the Rogers and Astaire musicals; Flying Down to Rio (1933) was the first. It included the popular dance team of Fred Astaire and a 23-year-old Ginger Rogers, and also starred Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore and Erik Rhodes. It is the first of the series to feature Ginger and Fred as the main attraction.

Jeff Harper sails to the tropical paradise Ahmi-Oni with his sidekick Rusty. He is there on behalf of his father to bargain for land with Dennis O'Brien. Jeff however falls in love with O'Brien's daughter Eileen and it is then up to Jeff's father to go to the island and try to break them up. A task easier said than done because Jeff's father also falls under the spell of the beautiful splendor of the islands.

Tommy Lundy (Victor Mature) is an arrogant ex-champion boxer who tries for an acting career on Broadway. He falls in love with his costar (Betty Grable), who's secretly married to actor John Payne.

Wabash Avenue is a 1950 musical film directed by Henry Koster and starring Betty Grable. The film was a remake of Grable's earlier hit 1943 film Coney Island.

I Wake Up Screaming (1941). Suspense film. Cast: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, and Carole Landis. The film is an early example of the film noir style. It is based on the novel with the same title by Steve Fisher, with a screenplay by Fisher and Dwight Taylor. It was one of the few times Betty Grable had a straight dramatic role in a picture. Click picture to view movie clip.

Victor Mature

Discovered while on stage at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, his first leading role was a caveman in One Million B.C. (1940), after which he joined 20th Century Fox to star opposite actresses such as Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth.

This is a song and dance number performed by Betty Grable, the Condos Brothers and other cast members from the 1951 film, Meet Me After The Show. Choreography for this film was by Jack Cole. Costumes by William Travilla. Click picture to view movie clip.

Charlotte Greenwood

Charlotte Greenwood started in vaudeville, and eventually starred on Broadway, movies and radio. Standing around six feet tall, she was best known for her long legs and high kicks. She earned the praise of being, in her words, the "...only woman in the world who could kick a giraffe in the eye." Click picture to view Charlotte unique style.

Biographical film, about the Dolly Sisters, identical twins who became famous on Broadway. Click to view movie clip.

JUNE HAVER

She is most known as a popular star of 20th Century-Fox musicals in the late 1940s, and her performance in The Dolly Sisters, with Betty Grable. She is often linked to her second husband, actor Fred MacMurray. Click to enter websight.

Betty Grable and Don Ameche are members of two feuding upper class families who meet while vacationing and fall in love in this musical fiesta that's a song-filled remake of the 1938 drama "Kentucky." Features Carmen Miranda in her film debut and a dazzling dance number by the Nicholas Brothers. Songs include "Bambu Bambu," "Down Argentina Way," "Nenita," "Two Dreams Met," and more. Click to view movie clip.

DOWN ARGENTINE WAY (1940)

Wealthy Ricardo Quintano, travels from Argentina to New York to sell a few of his father's prize horses. Click to view movie clip.

Moon Over Miami is a 1941 Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang, with Betty Grable and Don Ameche in leading roles and co-starring Robert Cummings, Carole Landis, Jack Haley, and Charlotte Greenwood. It was one of Haley's last appearances in a major, large-budgeted film; after 1943 he began making mostly B-pictures. (Haley is most noted for playing the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz).

CAROLE LANDIS

She had roles playing opposite fellow pin-up girl Betty Grable in Moon Over Miami and I Wake Up Screaming, both in 1941.

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend is a 1949 romantic comedy Western film starring Betty Grable and featuring Cesar Romero and Rudy Vallee. It was directed by Preston Sturges and written by him based on a story by Earl Felton.

The Shocking Miss Pilgrim is a 1947 American musical comedy film written and directed by George Seaton. The screenplay, based on a story by Frederica Sagor Maas and Ernest Maas, focuses on a young typist who becomes involved in the Women's Suffrage movement in 1874. The songs were composed by George and Ira Gershwin.

Diamond Horseshoe is a 1945 Technicolor musical film starring Betty Grable. It was directed by George Seaton. The film was a remake of the 1933 Clara Bow film Hoop-La, which itself was a remake of the 1928 film The Barker.

John Dailey

Beginning with Mother Wore Tights (1947) Dailey became the frequent and favorite co-star of Betty Grable. His performance in their film When My Baby Smiles at Me in 1948 won him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1950, he starred in A Ticket to Tomahawk, often noted as one of the first screen appearances of Marilyn Monroe, in a very small part as a dance-hall girl. In 1953, Dailey starred in Meet Me at the Fair. One of his notable roles was in There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), which featured Irving Berlin's music and also starred Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe, Johnnie Ray, and Donald O'Connor.

Mother Wore Tights is a 1947 musical film starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey as married vaudeville performers. This was Grable and Dailey's first film together, based on a book of the same name by Miriam Young. It was the highest grossing film of Grable's career up to that time, earning more than $5 million at the box office. It was also 20th Century Fox's most successful film of 1947.

A married song and dance team tries to adopt a child.

Bonny Kane and 'Skid' Johnson are vaudeville performers in the 1920s. The two of them suffer marital difficulties when Skid gets an offer to appear on Broadway while Bonny gets left behind on the road. Things get worse with Skid's increasing drinking problem and the fact that the press has reported him to be spending a lot of time with his pretty co-star.

Rich John Roberts, gets word that his son, Johnny, is in love with a gold digging blonde at college. So he enrolls as a freshman to try to steer Johnny towards the girl he'd like him to marry. He comes up with the idea to have the blonde believe he lost his business, by writing a letter instructing his partner to wire him that his business went broke. But he gives the letter to a school official who forgets to mail it.